In between officiating a mustache contest and getting hired to be the Brooklyn manager, Wally visited a nursing home near Shea Stadium Citi Field.

From the archives, here is Toby Hyde‘s take on the possibility of Wally returning in a minor league role with the Mets running the Mets’ player development system — which he termed “crazy talk” — written back in August. Ironically, Toby likely will be covering the Cyclones as part of his MetsMinorLeagueBlog next summer.

Joe Janish began MetsToday in 2005 to provide the unique perspective of a high-level player and coach -- he earned NCAA D-1 All-American honors as a catcher and coached several players who went on to play pro ball. As a result his posts often include mechanical evaluations, scout-like analysis, and opinions that go beyond the numbers. Follow Joe's baseball tips on Twitter at @onbaseball and at the On Baseball Google Plus page.

Unfair to Toby. He said Backman was unfit specifically for the role of “running the player development system”, not a “minor league role” as you wrote. Said nothing about him being unfit for a minor league managerial role. Sorta twisting words.

James K. – OK, I’ll correct it, in fairness to Toby. Though, I honestly did not believe I was being unfair — Toby published some pretty strong words and took a very clear stance on what he thought of Backman’s qualifications. It sounded to me like Toby didn’t find Backman fit for ANY job involving minor leaguers. But, I probably misinterpreted (as I often do).

Here was my train of thought: players “develop” in the minor leagues, thus, “minor league role”.

Andy – thanks for the correction. Wow! That’s two huge mistakes in one little post. Time to hire an intern.

Yes technically speaking, the NY-Penn League is classified as “Short Season A”. But I wouldn’t go so far as to say “Rookie” is below it, as that classification is assigned to any short-season league not called the NY-Penn or the Northwest. It’s on the same level as the Appalachian and Pioneer Leagues, which are termed “Rookie” (and are also short-season leagues). Ask MLB the reason for the distinction.